February Lunch and Learn Webinars With EdWeb
The Science of Writing Week, Sponsored by Voyager Sopris Learning
Join us for an exciting week of informative and instructive webinars, featuring some of the most respected experts in writing education. Whether you're an educator, administrator, or simply passionate about literacy, these sessions will provide valuable insights and practical strategies to enhance your writing instruction.
The Writing Rope: A Framework for Teaching Writing Integrated With Reading Instruction
Joan Sedita, author of The Writing Rope: A Framework for Explicit Writing Instruction in All Subjects
We will kick off the week with noted education expert and author Joan Sedita, as she discusses the skills and strategies needed for proficient writing. Discover how writing and reading instruction can be integrated, sharing the same cognitive processes and oral language base. Using The Writing Rope model, Sedita will describe multiple components of writing instruction, represented as strands in a rope:
- Critical Thinking (generating ideas and information, stages of the writing process)
- Syntax (syntactic awareness, sentence elaboration, punctuation)
- Text Structure (narrative, informational, opinion; paragraph structure; patterns of organization)
- Writing Craft (awareness of task, audience, purpose; word choice; literary devices)
- Transcription (spelling and handwriting fluency)
Learn how these strands compare with Scarborough's Reading Rope (2006) and how integrated instruction can support both reading and writing.
You’ll learn:
- A framework for teaching multiple components of writing
- Evidence-based instructional suggestions for teaching writing
- The importance of using an explicit approach to teaching writing
- The importance of integrating reading and writing instruction
Strategies for Supporting Writing at the Word, Sentence, and Paragraph Levels: A Theme-Centered Structured Literacy Approach
Charles Haynes, Ed.D., CCC-SLP, professor emeritus, MGH Institute of Health Professions
Join Dr. Charles Haynes for an interactive session about research-based writing instruction. Dr. Haynes will illustrate how topical vocabulary and concepts can be tapped to support Structured Literacy techniques for teaching writing. Emphasis will be placed on leveraging semantic feature analysis and developing "micro-discourse" skills for cohesion and elaboration of personal sequence narrative (PSN) and expository text forms. Learn cutting-edge tools to help students enhance their oral and written language comprehension.
You’ll learn:
- Describe theme-centered strategies for understanding and using topical vocabulary
- Outline systematic methods for supporting sentence comprehension and production
- Summarize content-based micro-discourse techniques for text-level elaboration and cohesion
- Explain how word-, sentence-, and micro-discourse teaching strategies support comprehension and writing
Using Writing as a Tool for Improving Reading and Learning
Dr. Michael Hebert, professor, School of Education, University of California, Irvine
Conclude the week with Dr. Michael Hebert as he shares strategies for using writing to support reading and learning. This hands-on session will focus on three research-based recommendations:
- Have Students Write About Text to Improve Reading Comprehension
- Teach Writing Skills to Improve Reading Skills
- Have Students Write More (and More Often)
Dr. Hebert will provide practical strategies applicable across different schooling levels and explain how to support students with or at risk for disabilities within a Multi-Tiered System of Supports framework.
You’ll learn:
- Theoretical and practical reasons for how and why writing supports reading and learning
- Specific writing activities and instructional approaches for facilitating reading and learning
- How to flexibly use writing activities to support learners with different needs and abilities
- How these approaches fit with content from the prior two presentations in this series
Don't miss this opportunity to enhance your writing instruction skills and learn from leading experts in the field. Mark your calendars and register now for The Science of Writing Week!